Line #29 Main/OverlyStereotypicalDisguise


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9	[[quoteright:349:[[Recap/TintinTheBlueLotus https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tintinbluelotustt.jpg]]]]
10	[[caption-width-right:349:Everyone, please form an orderly [[{{Pun}} queue]].]]
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12	Sometimes when a character has to use the art of disguise, they go too far. If they have to pose as a member of a certain minority group, they incorporate every stereotype of said group possible into their costume.
13	Probably the best-known instance of this: The spy/secret agent who [[ConspicuousTrenchcoat wears a grey trenchcoat and black hat]] (as an effort to "blend in" with the general populace) decades after these went out of fashion. Also frequently occurs when individuals must disguise themselves [[ThirdLawOfGenderBending as the opposite gender.]]
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15	Compare CultureEqualsCostume.
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18	!!Examples:
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20	[[foldercontrol]]
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22	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
23	* ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'': [[GenderBender Being turned from male to female]] did not alter Matsuri's personality, and [[DifferentForGirls he has a hard time fitting in with girls even when he tries]]. When he tries to act feminine as part of a disguise, he affects an [[{{Kawaiiko}} obnoxiously cute]] act where he talks loudly, giggles, and proclaims his enthusiasm [[SayItWithHearts with a heart in his speech bubble]]. Suzu saw through it instantly, and people who didn't know Matsuri was a boy found it incredibly conspicuous.
24	* ''Manga/KindergartenWars'': PlayedForLaughs. At one point, Dandelion Class and Sylvia need to infiltrate Yokohama's China Town, and so Sylvia prepares very stereotypically Chinese outfits for them. She ''claims'' it's for a disguise, but then [[NotEvenBotheringWithAnExcuse blatantly admits]] she wants a reason to wear a [[SexySlitDress fancy Chinese dress]]. Hilariously, Hana ends up dressing in a [[GoofySuit panda costume]].
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27	[[folder:Comic Books]]
28	* In the [[ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse Mickey Mouse]] story "Dalla parte sbagliata", Mickey tries to blend in in a BananaRepublic. Cue a panel of him walking around in a Mexican poncho while spouting stereotypical Mexican phrases, all while passers-by look at him in confusion.
29	* In the ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comics, bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson often attempt to go undercover by wearing ridiculously stereotypical disguises of whatever country they're in.
30	** ''The Blue Lotus'' has them dress up in garish Qing-era garb (complete with queues) on a visit to Shanghai in the 1930s. They end up with a large crowd of people pointing and laughing at them.
31	** ''Destination Moon'' has them wearing [[http://www.tintinmilou.free.fr/deguisement/moon.jpg traditional ceremonial garb]] of the ''wrong country'':
32	--->'''Thomson''': Greek costumes? But we specifically ordered the tailor to make us Syldavian ones...\
33	'''Thompson''': I told you he didn't seem very bright.
34	* ''ComicBook/Batman66'' #27, featuring Bane, has [[https://i0.wp.com/batman-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/image11.jpg Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara in Mexico;]] Gordon is wearing a large sombrero and serape and O'Hara is dressed as a mariachi!
35	-->'''Local:''' ''(whispering)'' Do not laugh, Beto. They may have head injuries.
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
39	* ''Film/SeventeenAgain2009'': When Mike is magically transformed into a teenager again, he dresses as a middle-aged man's idea of what a teenager would wear (he saw [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece Kevin Federline wear the exact same outfit]]).
40	* ''Film/AdeleHasntHadHerDinnerYet'' has Nick Carter, the most famous American detective, traveling to Prague to solve a case. His attempt to stay under the radar of the local press however fails miserably as he is dressed up in a Bohemian peasant's costume with bagpipes and all which makes him stick out like a sore thumb.
41	* ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'':
42	** ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'': Marty falls into this trap with the "something inconspicuous" outfit he bought with Doc's money. The leather jacket and SunglassesAtNight would've been conspicuous enough, but then he tops it off with a nice trilby hat, which was not considered casual headwear and normally only worn with a suit in the '50s.
43	** ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'': Marty's flamboyant cowboy attire, which he does lampshade, but (1950s) Doc insists is fine to wear (note that westerns were huge in 1955, but historical accuracy in westerns was not). Marty switches to more reasonable clothes as soon as he can.
44	* ''Film/ChittyChittyBangBang'': The Baron's two spies attempt to blend in as Englishmen by putting on plaid coats, deerstalker caps, holding a pipe aloft, and calling each other "Basil". A nearby family sees them pass and looks at each other in confusion.
45	* Admiral General Aladeen in ''Film/TheDictator'' dresses head to toe in the American flag posing as an American tourist during a helicopter tour scene, where he and his cohort are MistakenForTerrorist.
46	* In ''Film/TheHebrewHammer'', the main character and his love interest try to arrest the BigBad at a Kmart by posing as a Gentile couple, complete with Southern accents, Christian paraphernalia, and American flags.
47	* In ''Film/HighAnxiety'', Richard is wanted for murder and he and Victoria need to bypass airport security, so they disguise themselves as a loud, bickering elderly Jewish couple. Their reasoning is that the louder and more obnoxious they are, the more they'll be ignored.
48	* ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'': In ''Film/RevengeOfThePinkPanther'', Inspector Clouseau goes undercover in Hong Kong in {{Yellowface}}, eye makeup for slanted eyes, a Fu Manchu mustache, a rice paddy hat, and a Qipao, while all the ordinary citizens around him wear business suits.
49	* Creator/GeneWilder's pathetic attempt to pass for African-American in the movie ''Film/SilverStreak''. The script called for a black patron to walk in and be fooled by the disguise, but Creator/RichardPryor wisely [[WagTheDirector convinced the filmmakers]] to show the guy clearly not buying it for a second.
50	* ''Film/SpiesLikeUs:'' {{Inverted\|Trope}}. The two KGB agents' "American" disguises seem like they were inspired by [[Franchise/{{Barbie}} Malibu Ken]] dolls, as they consist of bleached blonde hair and preppy, pastel-colored clothing - complete with their own baby blue ''Jeep'' - in rural Pakistan. Of course, neither of the protagonists are suspicious of them until Millbarge notices [[ImpostorForgotOneDetail one of them wearing a Russian-made wristwatch]].
51	* ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' has a funny subversion. The main character's job is to infiltrate a Muslim terrorist group. He simply wraps a towel around his head, superglues hair to his face, and says, "Dirka dirka Muhammed Jihad." It works.
52	* In ''Film/XXx'', a [[TuxedoAndMartini spy dresses up in a tuxedo]] to blend in at the "Monte Carlo Club" which turns out to be a punk rock nightclub.
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55	[[folder:Literature]]
56	* In ''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator'', a prolonged scene with the President and a staff full of political caricatures includes a "Chief Spy" with "a false moustache, a false beard, false eyelashes, false teeth and a falsetto voice" ''while in the office.'' It kind of seems better suited to how the book was eventually adapted as a stage play.
57	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'':
58	** Sergeant Colon does this in a downright racist manner (as well as {{Malaproper}}, calling the Klatchians "brothers of the ''dessert''" rather than the ''desert'' and asking "[[IsItSomethingYouEat Had any baksheesh lately?]]"), to the point that onlookers assume he's a spy for a country other than the one he seems to be from, since no actual spy would be so obvious. And ''especially'' Ankh-Morpork, being a ProudMerchantRace run by a MagnificentBastard, would never send such an idiot.
59	** 71-Hour Ahmed in the same book does this brilliantly. He keeps doing stereotypically "Klatchian" things (like offering to buy someone's wife for twenty camels) and speaking Morporkian badly, with a thick accent. It turns out that not only is he [[spoiler:the police chief of Al-Khali]], he was educated in the Assassins' Guild school and speaks Morporkian perfectly when he wants to. He actually puts on a slight Morporkian accent in Klatchian just to mess with people.
60	** In ''Literature/MovingPictures'' the Wizards of the Unseen University do this [[SubvertedTrope by disguising themselves as Wizards]]. Specifically they put some conspicuous wire in their beards, which convinces everyone else that they were locals in ridiculous Wizard disguises. This allows them to attend the Moving Pictures show "incognito".
61	* In ''Literature/TheManWhoWasThursday'', the anarchist Lucian Gregory repeatedly tries to infiltrate respectable society by disguising himself as a priest, a capitalist, or a military man. It fails each time because, as he was raised on anarchist propaganda, he acts like an over-the-top [[TheWarOnStraw strawman]] of these groups.
62	-->'''Gregory:''' When first I became one of the New Anarchists I tried all kinds of respectable disguises. I dressed up as a bishop. I read up all about bishops in our anarchist pamphlets, in ''Superstition the Vampire'' and ''Priests of Prey''. I certainly understood from them that bishops are strange and terrible old men keeping a cruel secret from mankind. I was misinformed. When on my first appearing in episcopal gaiters in a drawing-room I cried out in a voice of thunder, "Down! down! presumptuous human reason!" they found out in some way that I was not a bishop at all. I was nabbed at once. Then I made up as a millionaire; but I defended Capital with so much intelligence that a fool could see that I was quite poor. Then I tried being a major. Now I am a humanitarian myself, but I have, I hope, enough intellectual breadth to understand the position of those who, like Nietzsche, admire violence -- the proud, mad war of Nature and all that, you know. I threw myself into the major. I drew my sword and waved it constantly. I called out "Blood!" abstractedly, like a man calling for wine. I often said, "Let the weak perish; it is the Law." Well, well, it seems majors don't do this. I was nabbed again.
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65	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
66	* In ''Series/FunkySquad'', one of the square cops attempts to pass himself off as a hippy by dressing as a cop's stereotype of a hippy. Not helped by the fact that he arrives driving a police car where he has crudely painted over the word "Police" on the door so it reads "Peace".
67	* ''Series/TheGoodies'' attempt to pass themselves off as Scottish is so over-the-top that the Scot they are trying to fool declares that they must be English tourists.
68	* ''Series/PrivateSchulz'' is sent to infiltrate Britain wearing plus fours. It's only after he's been put on the plane that his superiors ask if they still wear plus fours in 1940s wartime Britain. This and a few other blunders (like asking for a coffee in a British pub) soon give him away and the police are soon on the lookout for "the man in the plus fours" as a suspected German spy.
69	* ''Series/TheSarahSilvermanProgram'' played with this. [[{{CloudcuckooLander}} Sarah]] argued with a black man that being Jewish is harder than being black, and the two agreed to [[BlackLikeMe go through one day as the other ethnicity]] for a day to test it. Sarah dressed up in a [[{{blackface}} horribly stereotypical and offensive way]], receiving very unpleasant remarks, thinking they actually thought she was black and their responses were genuine racism. When she met the man in the usual spot she and the gang get their coffee and said that she agreed that [[ComicallyMissingThePoint being black was harder]], the black man said he realised being Jewish was actually harder. He was wearing a yarmukle, peot, a long false nose, and a shirt saying 'I <3 Money'. The man left the place as the two exchanged suspicious looks.
70	* ''Series/{{Soap}}'': In the fourth season, Burt and Danny decided to go undercover at a brothel to weed out organized crime in their town. After Burt forbids Danny from dressing like a pirate, Danny arrives at the sting dressed in a ridiculously offensive "Chinese man" costume.
71	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. In "Frontierland" Sam and Dean have to travel back to 1861 Wyoming. Aware that Dean is a [[WrongGenreSavvy massive Western fan]], Sam reluctantly wears the clothes he's picked out for them, [[HollywoodHistory which sure enough]] don't resemble what everyone else is wearing. It's not that which gives them away however, but the fact that their clothes are unusually clean for strangers who supposedly just rode into town.
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74	[[folder:Video Games]]
75	* ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'': Raiden's idea of an authentic civilian disguise while in Mexico is a gaudy mariachi sombrero and poncho draped over his completely unaltered cyborg body, not to mention his high-tech car and [[RobotDog Bladewolf]]. The first two locals he sees are more perplexed by the bizarre attempt at blending in than anything. He was apparently ''told'' that this would be a perfect disguise by the shopkeeper who sold it to him, who by all rights deserves the "Biggest Balls in Mexico" award for tourist trapping a heavily armed murder machine without fear or hesitation.
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78	[[folder:Web Original]]
79	* [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]] twice over in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPjsoYfTxj4 this video]] from ''Website/TheOnion'', where investigative reporter Gavin Fisher decides the best way to infiltrate the underground Chinese bootleg market is to disguise himself wearing not only stereotypical Chinese clothes but also wearing comically round glasses, donning {{Yellowface}} and fake [[AsianBuckTeeth buck teeth]], and speaking in [[AsianSpeekeeEngrish a terrible accent]]. Much to his confusion, people are only not fooled for a second, but act scared or even disgusted around him. He then tries [[CrossesTheLineTwice again]] by [[CreepyCrossdresser crossdressing]] as a [[AsianHookerStereotype Asian hooker]].
80	[[/folder]]
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82	[[folder:Western Animation]]
83	* In the "Honey Pot" episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'', Sterling Archer attempts to seduce a gay man by dying his hair blond and wearing roller skates, skin-tight short shorts, and a shirt that says "Got Dick?"
84	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
85	** Peter Griffin gets beat up after trying to disguise himself as a Jew and doing this trope.
86	** In another episode, Peter infiltrates one of Meg's dates dressed in stereotypical Chinese garb, complete with buck teeth and paddy hat.
87	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. Cartman pulls this twice:
88	** He goes undercover with Butters into a Chinese restaurant wearing a [[AllAsiansWearConicalStrawHats dǒulì]], false [[AsianBuckTeeth buck teeth]], and slanty eyes so that he can get secret plans for PRC world domination.
89	** He also [[ObfuscatingDisability acts like a stereotype of mentally handicapped people]] to get into the Special Olympics -- [[spoiler: he [[LaserGuidedKarma loses so badly]] that all he has to show for it is a ConsolationPrize]].
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92	[[folder:Real Life]]
93	* Ben Haggerty (a.k.a. Music/{{Macklemore}}) caused controversy when he put on a disguise that included [[AmbiguouslyJewish a dark colored wig with long sideburns and a large nose]] (to get to a club undetected) and then performed the song "Thrift Shop"... [[AllJewsAreCheapskates which wasn't exactly a good idea]]. Though it is worth mentioning that he [[WordOfGod denies that he was intending to promote]] any sort of anti-Semitic caricature when he came up with the outfit.
94	[[/folder]]

Context Main / OverlyStereotypicalDisguise